Stansfield, John

Current Location
Monument, CO
Occupation(s)
Storyteller and writer
Biography

A resident of Colorado and a storyteller since 1970, John has told stories professionally since 1979. During that time he has performed for more than one million listeners (thankfully, not all at once) in a great variety of settings. John's programs of stories and a cappella ballads feature: Western History and Environment; Literature Aloud!; and, World Folklore, especially American lore. He reenacts the lives of national park pioneers Enos Mills and John Otto, as well as Charles Fox Gardiner, frontier physician. A former classroom teacher, he is a specialist in storytelling in education, having taught storytelling and other courses at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. In 1989, he founded the Rocky Mountain Storytelling Festival, now the Douglas County Libraries Storytelling Festival. He spends his spare time hiking, skiing, and working to protect Colorado's wild places.

Awards/Honors
Writers of the American West: Multicultural Learning Encounters (Teacher Ideas Press, 2002) earned a Colorado Authors' League Award and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award
For his conservation efforts, the Wilderness Society presented Stansfield an Environmental Heroes Award in 2004 and the John Wade Award from the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Sierra Club in 2013
Education/Training
John graduated with a degree in English from Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts. He earned a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia in 1970.
Published Works Book Jackets
Organizations
Colorado Authors League - National Storytelling Network - Rocky Mountain Storytellers - Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition - Wild Connections
Speaker Availability
Yes
Speaker Topics
Writing Like a Storyteller - Storytelling: the Tell-Tale Art - Historytelling - Developing a Living History Character